Lawn Chair Catapult
Artist
Adam Ekberg
(American, born 1975)
Date2017
Mediumarchival color inkjet print
Dimensionssheet: 50.8 × 61 cm (20 × 24 in.)
framed: 55.9 × 62.2 cm (22 × 24 1/2 in.)
framed: 55.9 × 62.2 cm (22 × 24 1/2 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Markingsartist signature adhered to verso of frame
Credit LineMuseum purchase through the Loring Holmes Dodd Fund
Object number2024.19
Label TextConnecting to art’s past through practice, Ekberg’s work pays tribute to 1970s and ‘80s conceptual artists like John Baldessari, who combined a rules-based rigor with a deadpan sense of humor. Like many of Baldessari’s performances, Ekberg’s amusing photographs document elaborately staged outdoor activities that follow a fixed set of rules:
1. There can be no augmentation; the camera is merely a witness to the happenings.
2. The events must be generated by me.
3. The resulting photograph must mirror the original drawing.
In keeping with these imperatives, Lawn Chair Catapult began as a sketch. When presented with the opportunity, Ekberg drove to Northern Indiana with a friend where they created a makeshift catapult out of common building materials. Ekberg’s drawing required snapping the camera shutter when the hurled chair momentarily hesitated in the sky. “I wanted to photograph it at its zenith,” Ekberg said. “While it’s a temporal happening, it’s captured in a seemingly permanent photographic state that suggests the chair might fly through the air forever.”
On View
Not on view2015; printed 2021
2014; printed 2021